Casa 7A keeps prying eyes at bay

High up in the hills around an hour or two's drive from Bogota, Colombia, is located a country villa that boasts a degree of sustainability – and even more luxury. Designed by Arquitectura en Estudio and Natalia Heredia, Casa 7A also sports a novel facade made up of sliding and pivoting wooden screens that can offer both openness and privacy, as required.

Casa 7A was completed earlier this year and measures 550 sq m (5,920 sq ft). The villa was built using local labor and from materials such as concrete, sandstone, timber for the framework, and sustainably-grown teak, which was used for the furniture, screens, and flooring.

The residence is oriented north-to-south, which helps reduce solar heat gain, and keeps the sun on the swimming pool for most of the day, though a solar panel heating system is also on hand to warm the pool water. Casa 7A additionally features a ventilated roof and a catchment system which collects rainwater for irrigation use.

The home's layout is divided into two main section: open outer spaces, and private inner rooms. The private areas include four bedrooms, each with en suite bathroom, plus another bathroom, a kitchen, and utility rooms.

The semi-outdoor living space is the more interesting of the two. The outside kitchen, toilet, and patio areas feature no walls to keep out the great outdoors, but when the home is not in use – or if privacy is required – timber screens can be slid across on runners (or in some places pivoted) to close off the home.

The basic concept is by no means unique, but Casa 7A's wooden screen facade is a nice touch that has been particularly well done, and in addition to offering privacy, helps reduce the home's energy costs in a predominantly hot and dry climate.

Adam scours the globe from his home in North Wales in order to bring the best of innovative architecture and sustainable design to the pages of Gizmag. Most of his spare time is spent dabbling in music, tinkering with old Macintosh computers and trying to keep his even older VW bus on the road.